don't think dd will take bottle from cm

My dd is starting at cm in Dec, she will be 12 mo. She is formula fed & blw. She isn't eating much solids yet so still relies on milk for nutritionShe really will only drink bottles from me & a little bit from my mum. I don't think she'll take a bottle from the cm. Also my dad & stepmother will be looking after her one day a week so suspect same problem.

What should I do? Should I get her used toj drinking milk from a beaker so it's a 'different thing's to a bottle with me?

If there are no other underlying issues with your DD she is old enough to just eat what the other kids eat at the CM's. We did blw with DS because he point blank refused to allow us to feed him with a spoon. By 12mo he was eating what we ate. (That said, he still has a bottle at night at 2.3, but it's more for comfort than anything).

Assuming you've chosen a good, experienced CM I'd just let her manage feeding your DD. You'll probably find your DD will do all sorts of things for your CM that she wouldn't do for you! In our case it was sleep- I thought he'd never fall asleep with anyone except me or DH as we had such a hard time with him. However, he slept regular as clockwork with CM, I think because it was just 'what happened' there and he followed suit.

I was kind of hoping she would naturally start eating more & cut down on milk herself. Is this not the way it happens?

She has around 4-5 bottles in 24 hrs. Food is cheerfully stuffed in her mouth, a lot gets spat back out & she loses interest quickly & starts chucking it on the floor. She eats better when not in highchair.

well it might be a few trial and errors til you find one that suits, soft spout/valve, valve/hard spout, soft spout/no valve etc so it may take a week or two to work through through til she settles on one

I think you may find that if she refuses milk she will be hungrier for more food so it will even out.

DS certainly ate more solids when I wasn't around because he didn't have his preferred option but was still hungry. He was BF though and we didn't push a bottle once he made it clear he didn't like bottled EBM. Still, same principle - less milk, more other stuff.

I wouldn't worry too much about the cm, children can behave quite differently in childcare, and when you aren't there. 4-5 bottles of milk sounds quite a lot at 12 mnths, I would think bottle when first awake, bottle around lunchtime nap, bottle at bedtime. You can try a cup but I know plenty of LOs who will happily drink water from a cup but still want milk in a bottle - it's not a problem. (btw, you can go onto full fat cows' milk at 12 mnths).

She should be having 3 meals a day plus snacks at 12 mnths, and again, at the cm she may well eat more, particularly if you cut down on her milk.

I wouldn't worry too much (easier said than done I know!), it'll sort itself out!

Can she go onto cow's milk even though only eating minimal solids? I was wondering about keeping her on formula until her solids intake went up as assume formula has extra stuff added to make a balanced diet...

I don't know about the make-up of formula, but if she's having cereal that's fortified anyway. And you can give her vitamins. I can't help think that if you continue with formula after 12 mnths you're buying into the marketing!

If you stick with the normal formula not any of the follow on milks, then that will be fine. You could then introduce cows milk gradually.

I have found that children can go on hunger strike during the first few weeks of starting with a new childcarer. They will drink plenty from mum/primary carer.Children copy others, so if the CM has other children at snack time, lunch time, then your DD will watch what those children do and is likely to copy, so she may eat quite well at the childminders after a while.

When going to pick her up from the childminders take a bottle with you (can you prep it at work?) Then if she has not had much during the day she can have it from you as soon as you have collected.

I wouldn't worry if she won't take a bottle from the CM (though she probably would if she needed it). If you and your CM give her plenty of dairy - cheese, butter, yoghourt, perhaps cows milk on cereal, fortified snacks etc - she will be fine.

Also I have a new bottle with straw / spout thing to use for milk when it's not her main feeds so she could use that at cm & if she won't have a bottle.

Her milk tends to be on waking & finish off bottle after breakfast. Before nap at 11 ish, bedtime - 2 bottles or if only 1, will have a night feed. Maybe some late afternoon. Is not a hugely fixed routine, I'm going to try to get her to have more cheese & yoghurt through day & hope she'll drop the now-and-then milk that isn't part of a main feed.